Tag Archives: technology

Axios reports: The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized Amazon’s delivery drones to fly longer distances without visual spotters, a key hurdle that will allow the retailer to expand its fledgling Prime Air service. Amazon’s goal is to deliver 500 million packages a year by drone by 2029. But first, it had to satisfy government regulators that it could fly safely …

NBC News reports: Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge a monthly subscription fee to offset the cost of the technology, according to people with knowledge of Amazon’s plans. The Seattle-based tech and retail giant will launch a more conversational version of Alexa later this year, potentially positioning it to better …

The New York Daily News reports: Drones will soon be accompanying cops on 911 calls throughout the city, NYPD officials said. A new Drone as First Responder pilot program will be in effect in coming months, beginning with four NYPD police precincts and the Central Park precinct, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry announced at a hearing before the …

Reuters reports: Apple has apologized after an advertisement for its latest iPad Pro model sparked criticism by showing an animation of musical instruments and other symbols of creativity being crushed, Ad Age magazine reported. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with …

Bloomberg News reports: Surely someone in that Cupertino spaceship in California could comprehend the grim imagery of its new iPad ad — titled simply “Crush!”— in which a giant crushing machine slowly squeezes a pile of beloved creative tools. First, a trumpet, buckling. Then paint splattering everywhere. A bust, squashed. An upright piano, crushed, strings and hammers flying out with …

The Washington Post reports: Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) stepped to the microphone on the House floor Monday to speak about one of her latest pieces of legislation, as she has done many times before during her five years in Congress. But the voice that gave the speech wasn’t hers — it was from a text-to-voice application, an assistive device she …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and reassume regulatory oversight of broadband internet rescinded under former President Donald Trump. The commission voted along party lines to finalize a proposal first advanced in October to reinstate open internet rules adopted in 2015 and re-establish the commission’s broadband authority. Reinstating the …

Ars Technica reports: SpaceX is reportedly working with at least one major US defense contractor, Northrop Grumman, on a constellation of spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. According to Reuters, development of the network of hundreds of spy satellites by SpaceX is being coordinated with multiple contractors to avoid putting too much control of a highly sensitive intelligence program …

NBC News reports: Boston Dynamics unveiled Wednesday a new version of its humanoid robot, “Atlas,” that the company says is “designed for real-world applications.” Like many of its previous announcements, the company released a video of its robot in action. “In the months and years ahead, we’re excited to show what the world’s most dynamic humanoid robot can really do …

Bloomberg News reports: Apple Inc. has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things,” according to people familiar with the situation. Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified …

Ars Technica reports: Amazon is giving up on the cashier-less “Just Walk Out” technology at its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. The Information reports that new stores will be built without computer-vision-powered surveillance technology, and “the majority” of existing stores will have the tech removed. In the early days, Amazon’s ambitions included selling Just Walk Out to other brick-and-mortar stores. The …

Ars Technica reports: Meet ANYmal, a four-legged dog-like robot designed by researchers at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, in hopes of using such robots for search-and-rescue on building sites or disaster areas, among other applications. Now ANYmal has been upgraded to perform rudimentary parkour moves, aka “free running.” Human parkour enthusiasts are known for their remarkably agile, acrobatic feats, and while …

The Associated Press reports: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why …

TechCrunch reports: Phone giant AT&T has reset millions of customer account passcodes after a huge cache of data containing AT&T customer records was dumped online earlier this month, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The U.S. telco giant initiated the passcode mass-reset after TechCrunch informed AT&T on Monday that the leaked data contained encrypted passcodes that could be used to access AT&T …

CBC News reports: SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket, by far the most powerful ever built, blasted off on its third test flight Thursday morning. The test aimed to boost the unpiloted upper stage into space on a sub-orbital hop to a controlled re-entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The giant rocket’s 33 Raptor engines, gulping 40,000 pounds of liquid …

Mint reports: Elon Musk has revealed that long-form videos will soon be accessible on smart television sets through the social network X. The announcement comes in the wake of reports by Fortune magazine stating that the platform is gearing up to launch a TV app next week for Amazon and Samsung users. Responding to a user’s inquiry on X, Musk …

The Washington Post reports: Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid. A major factor behind the skyrocketing demand is the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence, which is …

Bloomberg News reports: Apple Inc. is canceling a decadelong effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company. Apple made the disclosure internally Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project. The decision was shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff …

Bloomberg News reports: “Based on our initial review, we believe that the outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement. AT&T said all wireless service was restored Thursday afternoon, capping a day of frustration that began in the …

CBS News reports: Having issues with your Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile service? Well you are not alone. Customers of numerous U.S. cell service providers were reporting outages early Thursday morning, according to the website downdetector.com, which tracks such reports. AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular and Consumer Cellular were among the providers. Some municipalities reported issues with 911 service. The reports …